As Dark Horse paces into the sunset, OLG adds horse racing to its stable of betting options
Horseplayers in Ontario can now bet on races via OLG and bet365, as well as HPIbet.
by Melissa Keith
On Tuesday (Aug. 12), Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) issued a media release announcing that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) would be offering pari-mutuel wagering access to players using the OLG.ca website and OLG app. The release included a statement from Dave Pridmore, OLG’s chief gaming officer: “We are excited to offer access to this experience to our online players, providing another way for them to engage in the thrilling sport of horse racing. This collaboration represents an important step in our mandate of supporting the sport and a vibrant, competitive and sustainable horse racing industry in Ontario.”
On Friday (Aug. 15), David Vivenes, WEG executive vice-president of revenue, brand and experience answered some questions about the introduction of wagering on horse races via the OLG’s platforms. He told HRU that the integration of pari-mutuel betting into OLG’s online gaming menu took time to arrange, with no particular person responsible for the new wagering platform which went live this week.
The arrangement means that the OLG online wagering platforms will provide customers with access to pari-mutuel wagering via Woodbine’s HPIbet platform (formerly known as Horseplayer Interactive). Vivenes said that the interface between the OLG and HPIbet sites happens seamlessly “on the back end,” with OLG patrons seeing “Live Horse Racing” as a new offering on the OLG.ca “Sports” page. This means that horseplayers on OLG.ca or the OLG app will not be transferred to the HPIbet site, nor will they need an HPIbet wagering account, although they must be registered to play on the OLG site. Racing is simply one more sport they can bet, alongside others such as major league baseball, hockey, and football.
“OLG offers a variety of bet types, including basic bets, exotic bets such as exacta and Jackpot HI-5, and multi-horse racing. The wagering options offered are dependent on the specific racetrack and race type. You will not be able to combine wagers from other sports, nor use Sports Bet Credits or other OLG.ca bonuses on any Woodbine wagering channels or partners,” reads the introductory passage on the OLG Live Horse Racing page. Vivenes confirmed that horse racing will remain a pari-mutuel product on OLG, and will not be introducing fixed-odds wagering like other betting operators have in places like Australia and (in a more limited fashion) New Jersey.
Vivenes said that OLG has supported Ontario horse racing as lottery games, slots, table games, and sports betting were successively decriminalized over recent decades, eroding horse racing’s former dominance as one of just a few legal Canadian gambling options. OLG currently administers purse funds for provincial thoroughbred, standardbred, and quarter horse racing; administers funds for operational and capital costs, as well as breed improvement programs; and collaborates with the Ontario racing industry to market the sport to a wider audience.
While not launching on King’s Plate Day at Woodbine Racetrack (Aug. 16), the official introduction of horse racing on OLG.ca during the week leading up to the Saturday card is well-timed to draw casual and new horseplayers for one of Canada’s best days of thoroughbred racing. Vivenes said that while not identical to the tools and options that HPIbet provides to its dedicated customers, OLG will provide the basics for newcomers to watch and wager on the Sport of Kings.
Vivenes added that Woodbine’s Dark Horse Bets app was going dark soon after OLG picked up the task and technology to bring pari-mutuel wagering to a different demographic than has traditionally played the ponies. Following its inaugural launch by WEG in June 2020, Dark Horse Bets was used to gather real-time data and feedback from bettors using its simplified betting platform, with races streaming live in high definition (HD). It offered QUBE, an artificial-intelligence based handicapping tool, and was later modified to reflect user preferences ahead of its Aug. 19, 2021 relaunch.
Former Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson announced at the time (2021) that Dark Horse had features that appealed to the younger demographic of “digital natives” who have never known a world without the internet and cell phones. “Dark Horse Bets was developed with today’s sports bettor in mind and has a very intuitive mobile first experience that gives new fans the confidence to get started wagering on horse racing. It is perfectly suited for the multi-screen generation and lifestyle with its simplicity and the thrill of racing in the palm of your hand.”
The edgier-branded Dark Horse Bets was a catalyst for innovation, some of which has subsequently made its way onto HPIbet, such as AI handicapping tools. But Vivenes confirmed that the site and app will shut down permanently effective Aug. 26, 2025, because Dark Horse has outlived its mission to win over a newer group of bettors. Like the new OLG betting platforms for horse racing, Dark Horse had provided a seamless backend interface with HPIbet.
Vivenes added that pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing is also available to Ontario customers via the popular bet365 sports betting platform, and that there could be future opportunities for additional crossover between sports betting apps and betting on live racing.
“This new plug-and-play provides access via OLG.ca to WEG’s horse racing product — and the same solution could potentially be used by other gaming operators in Ontario to offer racing to their own customers,” reads the WEG media release about the ongoing partnership.
The sports betting app bet365 introduced pari-mutuel horse racing on its Ontario menu ahead of the 2023 Queen’s Plate, a non-exclusive deal which took over a year to put into play. As Jim Lawson told HRU at the time, “This is under the management and control of Woodbine, and under the regulatory regime of the CPMA [Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency], so it’s a very delicate minefield to get through, not just technologically, but from a legal and compliance perspective.”
Two years later, Woodbine’s executive vice-president of revenue, brand and experience said that he is still a believer in the pari-mutuel system of wagering, established in the late 1800s in France by Pierre Oller, which pits bettors against each other while betting operators take out a small share from the wagering pools for their role in providing the sport’s infrastructure. With innovation behind the scenes to get Ontario horse racing visible and playable on the wider scale offered by OLG, Vivenes said its status as the original betting sport will become known to people previously unaware of what it has to offer.
